THE RIVER BENUE, MIGRATIONS, SETTLEMENTS AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE BENUE BASIN IN HISTORICAL TRAJECTORY – UJI, WILFRED TERLUMUN

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INTRODUCTION

All over the world, waters and Rivers have played a very significant role to the growth and development of human civilisations in space and time. All of the earliest ancient civilisations, human settlements and development, right up to the beginnings of the foundations of Mercantilism in Western Europe, waters and rivers play a pivotal role in human migrations, settlement and development. There is no gainsaying the fact that all of the civilisations and human settlements of Mesopotamian Civilisations such as the Babylonian Empire, the Sumerians, the Assyrians, the Egyptian, Greek and Iberian Peninsula, were a product of human interface with waters, adopting maritime technology to domestic waters, thus the achievement of high-profile civilisations in world history.

Since the creation or the Big Bang of the Universe, water has been a fundamental theme in human and world development. Geologist have pointed out that the Earth itself is a huge ball of water that is a million years older than the sun. Geologist and Physicist have argued that it was the contraction and realignment of matter and energy through the tiny particles of the atom that has given birth to the known universe today. If we remember the Albert Einstein theory of relativity, that matter is energy and energy is matter, then we can understand that water which is a principal source of energy has ever been in existence through time and space. 

The ability of human beings to domesticate the vast oceans and Rivers of the world using maritime technology led to the emergence of the first human settlements and civilisations around the Mediterranean Sea Coast in the Fayum Cultural Basin. Subsequently, water transportation using maritime technology began a process of human migrations that opened up settlement communities. Thus, attracting development along the river Nile pouring out into the 6 Sudan and Ethiopia, emptying into Tanzania and down into the East African sub-region. River Nile, the longest river in the world, runs through several countries, from North Africa through East and Central Africa pouring out into the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. The Nile represents one great water resource that has made a tremendous contribution to the development of human society and development in Africa. 

It is against this background that we can appreciate the significance and importance of this lead lecture titled “The River Benue, Migrations, Settlements and Development in the Benue Basin in Historical Trajectory.” The River Benue takes it source from the Cameroonian mountains running through several States in Nigeria from the North East outpouring into the North Central of Nigeria, joining with the River Niger at a Lokoja where the two rivers are emptied into the Atlantic Ocean. River Benue just as the River Nile has played an important role in the growth of human settlements through maritime migrations and development. The River Benue has given birth to some of precolonial settlements and civilisations in the Benue Basin such as that of Jukun at Abinsi, Nupe and Igbbirra in Makurdi, Agatu and Bassa at Loko. 

During the pre-colonial era, the river Benue was the major source of transport infrastructure as well as inter group relations between the diverse ethnic groups of the area such as Jukun, Igbirra, Nupe, Tiv, Agatu, Bassa etc. The Colonial era witnessed the European exploration of the Benue Basin, exploring the transport infrastructure of the River Benue. The River Benue provided the major source of transportation for the European expansion, conquest and integration of the diverse ethnic groups of the area into the western capital mode of production and exchange. In the postcolonial era, the Nigerian State has made conscious efforts at the development of her water and river resources. As far back as the 1970s, the military governments of General Yakubu Gowon, General 7 Murtala Mohammed and General Olusegun Obasanjo, under the Second and third National Development Plan, established River Basins Development Authorities, as a strategy to harness the water resources of Nigeria for development and agricultural modernisation. 

National Development Programmes such as the Operation Feed the Nation and the Green Revolutions under Obasanjo and Alhaji Shehu Shagari were designed to domesticate the water resources of Nigeria for optimum development. Despite all these attempts, there is little that is left to be desired in the harnessing of Nigeria’s water and river resource for development. What then is the way forward? These are the prevailing issues of the lead paper presentation; to highlight our water potential in historical trajectory, how it contributed to development in the past, linking the past with the present in order to have a sustainable policy of water and river development in Nigeria. 

It is impossible to overstate the significance of water to humankind. Without food, man can endure longer than without water. He needs it to cultivate his crops, operate his factories, cook, wash, maintain hygiene, and drink. As a result, just like his prehistoric epoch, modern man depends largely on water for his survival. However, until recently, people have tended to take water for granted, because it is freely available resource due to rainfall. Experience has taught the oil-rich nations of the Persian Gulf and the dry and semiarid regions of North Africa that water is just as valuable as oil. Developing nations now understand that prioritising fast industrialisation using the development of essential infrastructure, such as power, water supply and a reliable transportation system is crucial and industrial.